Case Studies
Glass Windows from a Building Upgrade
An Energy company underwent a retrofit of their high-rise headquarters in downtown Houston. They had 1000 exterior glass windows that were not acceptable to their existing recycling partner. The company contacted RecycleMatch to find an alternative to landfill for the 180,000 lbs of materials. RecycleMatch created a match and sold the materials to a company that processed the glass to make countertops and tile. RecycleMatch also found a solution for a smaller volume of interior glass that a local artist will re-use for paintings and furniture. By matching materials needs with supply from this building transformation, RecycleMatch was successful in adding value for all parties.
IBM and the Solar Energy Industry
in 2006, IBM developed a unique, eco-friendly way to recycle scrap silicon "wafers" -- the base material used for chips in everything from computers to consumer electronics. The process had dual advantages for the environment, since it helps reduce the estimated 3 million silicon wafers discarded each year across the computer industry, while also providing new supplies of raw materials to the supply-constrained solar energy industry. The program also resulted in reduced spending on monitor wafers and increased efficiency in IBM’s wafer reclaim program. For the IBM manufacturing site in Burlington Vermont, the annual savings in 2006 were more than half-a-million dollars. The projected ongoing annual savings for 2007 was nearly $1.5 million and the one-time savings for reclaiming stockpiled wafers is estimated to be more than $1.5 million.
New Belgium Brewery and Solix Biofuels
One of the byproducts of the beer brewing process is carbon dioxide gas. New Belgium Brewery matched a waste stream with Solix Biofuels to make use of waste CO2. The 5,000 metric tonnes of CO2 that New Belgium produces annually is sent to the Solix facility and pumped into their bioreactor to grow algae. The algae is then processed into biodiesel fuel. The beauty of the normally scummy algae is that can yield up to 10,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre compared to 50 to 100 gallons per acre for soybeans.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, more than 8,000 companies have participated in the UK’s National Industrial Symbiosis Program, producing hundreds of millions of dollars in savings and new revenue, enormous energy and environmental resource conservation benefits, and hundreds of new jobs. In two years, the program diverted more than 2.2 million tons of waste from landfill sites, reduced carbon dioxide emissions by over two million tons, and reduced the use of industrial water by 260 million liters. In addition, the companies in the program generated 104 Million GBP in revenue and saved 81 million GBP in costs.
Ford Motor Company Matching Design and Innovative Materials
The 2010 Ford Flex will include the auto industry's first use of wheat straw, a waste by-product of wheat production.Wheat straw will make up 20 percent of the vehicle's two third-row storage bins, lowering the bins' weight by 10 percent, reducing Ford Motor Company's petroleum use by 20,000 pounds a year and lowering its carbon dioxide emissions by 30,000 pounds a year. Ford and its suppliers have been working with farmers in Ontario for the wheat straw they need. Within Ontario, there are 28,000 wheat farmers that have 30 million metric tons of wheat straw waste available at any given time.
Wheat straw adds to Ford's growing list of bio-based and alternative materials it has added to Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles, including soy-based seat and back foam cushioning, 100 percent recycled-content seat fabric, recycled-plastic underbody systems, seat fabric made from recycled plastic bottles and soy-based interior roof covers.
